Digital Conflict

By Kevin Coleman

Cyber diplomacy requires greater focus

There is an ever increasing need for diplomatic relationships when it comes to the cyberattacks directed at nations around the world. For this reason there is an increased focus on international cyber diplomacy.

Cyber diplomacy first began to gain government attention in 2005. Since then international cyber diplomacy has continued to gain attention as the roles and responsibilities are formalized. The watershed moment occurred when the State Department created this role within its organization. Few cyberattacks are conducted from the attacker’s location and hit their target directly. Often they use unwilling intermediaries (such as compromised computers) in other countries, often times unfriendly to the country where the target resides. International cyber diplomacy will establish a foundation for cooperation, a common dialog and mutual aid among our growing range of our international partners, close allies, and other major players in the cyber domain.

The United States is just one of 195 countries now connected to the Internet. In contrast 193 countries are member states of the United Nations, according to Wikipedia. Based on December 2011 statistics, North America is now third when it comes to the number of users by region. Asia is first with Europe coming in second.

As good as the United States is at cyberattack investigations, we should not and cannot do it alone. For that primary reason the role of the cyber diplomat is critical to our success and will only grow in importance as the cyber threat domain continues to evolve.